1. Technical Field
Embodiment of the invention disclosed generally relate to systems and associated methods for facilitating configuration and maintenance of computer network assets. In particular, embodiments of the invention are directed to provisioning computing devices using cloning and visualization techniques.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some computer networks use a large number of servers to provide services to client computers. To prevent the servers from becoming outdated, regular updating of the hardware or the software of the servers is performed. For example, updates can add new features to, update, the versions of add patches to, or perform other modifications or maintenance to the operating system of one or more of the servers. However, maintaining or updating a large number of servers can be costly and time consuming.
To facilitate the task of updating servers, it is known to use virtual machines. In general terms, a virtual machine is software configured to simulate a physical computing system. A virtual machine is allocated memory in a hardware layer, a virtual processor having one or more virtual central processing units, and virtual, input or output (I/O) devices. A virtual machine can be used on a host computing device to mimic the characteristics of a processor that is different in type from the native processor of the host computing device. Multiple virtual machines can share the underlying physical resources of the hardware layer of a computing device that hosts the virtual machines. The use of virtual machines permits multiple operating systems and programs to run on a single physical computer at the same time. Each virtual machine typically hosts its own applications in a fully isolated environment, with each operating system executing independently as if it were operating on a single dedicated computing system. In some cases, a virtual machine is configured to emulate an entire computing system by emulating specific hardware characteristics and being configured with specific software applications.
Recently, the creation and management of virtual machines has been called platform visualization. Platform virtualization is performed on a given hardware platform by host software which creates virtual machines for guest software. The guest software, which is often itself a complete operating system, runs as if it were installed on a stand-alone hardware platform. The guest system often requires access to specific devices to function. Hence, the virtual machine is configured to support the interfacing of the guest system to devices such as hard disk drives or network interface devices, for example. Virtual machines can be used for replacing outdated servers, providing redundant servers for disaster recovery, replacing outdated hardware with new hardware, and the like.
The maintenance and updating of assets in computing networks is also facilitated by the use of cloning techniques. In general terms, disk cloning technology copies the contents of one computer hard disk to another or to an “image” (a file). Often, the contents of the first disk are written to an image file as an intermediate step, and the second disk is loaded with the contents of the image file. Current cloning technology generally copies the contents (particularly, the operating system and desired applications) of a computer system's disk, keeps the state of the computer system at a given point in time, and deploys an image of the disk. Known commercial products in this technology area include Tivoli Provisioning Manager (TPM) for OS Deployment, Norton Ghost Solution Suite, and Acronis TrueImage.
Disk cloning software has several uses. Reboot and restore is a technique in which the disk of a computer is automatically wiped and restored from a “clean” master image. In provisioning, client computers are provided with a software suite so that a client computer is ready to be used without delay in installing individual applications. In full system backup a comprehensive backup of an operating system and installed software can be made. In system recovery an original equipment manufacturer can provide media that can restore a computer to its original factory software configuration.
Although it is known to transfer an image of an existing computer system to another, the provision in a large network of the same or similar computing environment in terms of functionality, including user and software settings, legacy software functionality, legacy peripherals functionality, and the like, presents significant difficulties.